The English author’s fifth novel is a taut and atmospheric read
As much of the narrative takes place within the confines of the hospital – with depressingly realistic details such as Neffy’s inability to taste and smell, or “the internal mixture of lethargy, irritability and sudden zeal” brought on by captivity – Fuller chooses to bolster this with a science fiction storyline about a “Revisit” machine that allows Neffy to travel back in time in her memories, chiefly to childhood holidays in Greece with her father Baba.
While original in premise, this device soon begins to irk: why couldn’t the character just remember the past like most other fictional characters, which is to say, in her own head.
The superb ending ties everything together with a moving, tragic cohesiveness. The bleak twists and sudden shifts forward in time feel earned and in keeping with the world Fuller has created Fuller writes brilliantly about desire and the heady beginnings of new relationships. Neffy recalls intimate moments with her boyfriend Justin: “Like starting a fire that spreads outwards until it gets to my hands and the soles of my feet and sets them alight.” Past memories such as these work to humanise the loss the characters feel. The book is also peppered with knowledge, another trademark of Fuller’s writing.
Plotwise there is double intrigue: the direness of the situation beyond the hospital walls, and an earlier mystery, involving Neffy and her father, that is revealed subtly and sensitively as the story unfolds. The superb ending ties everything together with a moving, tragic cohesiveness. The bleak twists and sudden shifts forward in time feel earned and in keeping with the world Fuller has created.